Walter Lee Younger

Walter Lee Younger (1924-) was a limousine driver from Chicago, Illinois.

Biography
Walter Lee Younger was born in Chicago, Illinois to a working-class African-American family, the son of Walter Younger Sr. and Lena Younger and the brother of Beneatha Younger. He married Ruth in 1948 and settled in a dilapidated one-bedroom apartment on the city's South Side, which they shared with their son Travis, Lena, and Beneatha. He worked as a limousine driver, and he worked hard with the goal of becoming wealthy; in 1959, he invested some of his father's life insurance money in a liquor store partnership. Younger was bitter about his own race, saying that colored women were not supportive of their husbands and that they were all dumb, and he also wanted to move his family to a white neighborhood. Unfortunately, his business partners absconded with his investment, ruining his sister and son's dreams; Younger decided to instead accept an offer from white neighborhood representative Karl Lindner to buy them out of their home to reverse the setback. Ultimately, Younger saw the error in his philosophy of abandoning black culture (which he blamed for his conditions) for white culture (which he saw as his salvation), and he redeemed himself and black pride by not accepting the buyout from Lindner, instead leaving for the new home with his family and facing an uncertain future.